NBA star, former Husky brings generosity to Middlesex YMCA

Published 8:16 pm, Friday, August 18, 2017

Andre Drummond jokes around with a young fan while signing autographs at Middlesex YMCA in Middletown on Friday.

Andre Drummond jokes around with a young fan while signing autographs at Middlesex YMCA in Middletown on Friday.

Photo: David Borges/Hearst Connecticut Media

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Andre Drummond shakes hands with a young fan at an autograph session at Middlesex YMCA on Friday.

Andre Drummond shakes hands with a young fan at an autograph session at Middlesex YMCA on Friday.

Photo: David Borges/Hearst Connecticut Media

Former Husky Andre Drummond continues to give back to hometown

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MIDDLETOWN >> The halls he used to walk through as a kid, the gym he’d play in “from dawn to dusk, 6 a.m. to midnight, countless hours” — they’re all a little smaller now to Andre Drummond.

But they still occupy a big place in his heart.

“I get chills walking through these hallways,” Drummond said on Friday, in between signing hundreds of autographs for local kids at the Middlesex YMCA, “just knowing I was 12, 13, walking through these hallways, having the same hoop dreams of being in the NBA. Being a kid from out of here to make it to where I am and accomplish the things I’ve accomplished is huge, and it gives all the kids here hope that, no matter where you’re from, anything is possible.”

Few players in the NBA give back as much as Drummond, and he was at it again on Friday. The Detroit Pistons star and former UConn standout signed autographs, posed for pictures and gave away backpacks with school supplies to 300 kids at the Middlesex Y. It’s an idea hatched by Drummond, who moved to Middletown at age 7 with his mother, Christine Cameron, and his longtime close friend, Mike Boornazian.

“He always wants to give back to the community,” said Boornazian, the former Xavier High standout who’s now a TV producer for NBC. “He donates to the Y every year. This is something that meant a lot to both of us. We both grew up playing here. He said he wanted to do something more for the Y, and asked me if I could help him out. I was more than happy to.”

And the YMCA is eternally grateful for Drummond’s generosity, according to CEO Michele Rulnick.

“He remembers where he came from,” Rulnick said. “He remembers how important this organization was to him growing up, and he gives back. I just think that’s remarkable. He’s a remarkable guy, and I think that comes from his mom, too. She’s committed. She recognizes who helped raise her kids. They’re great to the Y and to other organizations. They’re really super people.”

Drummond’s philanthropy has been well-documented. A few years ago, he made his first donation of $10,000 to the Middlesex Y, money that has funded Andre’s Allstars, which provides Y memberships to disadvantaged kids in the Middletown area. In 2016, Drummond was a finalist for the NBA Cares Community Assist Award, promising to donate the $25,000 award to the Middlesex Y if he won. He didn’t win, but he did donate the $10,000 he earned for winning the award for the month of February to Special Olympics Michigan.

Indeed, Special Olympics is a cause near and dear to Drummond’s heart. In fact, he was recently named the organization’s global ambassador.

“That’s a big (thing) for me,” he said, “because as a kid, I was teased, made fun of, told I was different from other kids.”

If it’s hard to believe a chiseled, 6-foot-10, shot-swatting, rebounding machine could ever have been made fun of at school, consider that Drummond was always bigger than everybody else and “my body developed quicker than my mind did.”

“To hear those different jokes and people talk down about me like that, it’s a reason why I took part in Special Olympics,” he added. “I want these kids to know that they aren’t less than anybody else. They can overcome anything and be just as great in their own way.”

Drummond is back home for a few days for the first time in a while. He’ll play, along with Boornazian and some other childhood friends, in the Osgood Shootout at New Britain High on Saturday at 3 p.m. He’s had a chance to see family members he hasn’t seen in a long time — his god daughter, grandmother, aunts, uncles, a cousin who just got back from the Army and is now an engineer.

Andre Drummond may be a terrific choice as an ambassador for Special Olympics, but he’s a great ambassador for anything he represents — the NBA, the Pistons, UConn, Middletown, the Middlesex YMCA, and his family — as well.

“I’m a testament to my family,” he added. “The path I went down was a very successful path. I give a lot of encouragement to my family and friends to continue to push hard and be great at whatever they do.”